The present invention generally relates to computer system alerts, and more particularly to dynamically setting thresholds for computer system alerts.
Operations analysts at large data centers may be constantly alerted to problems by software monitoring the computer systems associated with the data centers. Many of the alerts may not be helpful due to the dynamic environment of a typical data center, and an alert for an event may be considered a problem on a Monday at 9:00 AM but may not be considered a problem on a Thursday at 7:00 PM. Products may allow a user to set a threshold value for various key performance indicators (KPIs); however, the threshold values may be hardcoded in the product. Users monitoring the alerts may not appreciate the severity of an alert because the basis for the alert may be a value (e.g., a threshold) that does not apply to the time/situation when the KPI was monitored. On the other hand, an extensive list of threshold values to account for numerous times/situations may be unmanageable, e.g., for updating. Users monitoring the computer systems may consider certain alerts ones that can be safely ignored because the current date and time associated with the alert may reflect a workload and stress on the system that is different from the workload and stress the alert was designed for. As such, the usefulness of the alerts (and monitoring system) may be reduced, or an important, genuine alert may be hidden among a large number of unimportant alerts.